How do you Use LinkedIn for Business Building

Naomi Johnson, founder of TheProfile.Company and the author of ‘What to Put on Your LinkedIn Profile’, works with companies to translate their brand message into engaging and professional LinkedIn profiles. Here, she explains some of the steps to take that create the ‘know, like and trust’ factor needed to facilitate introductions and bring in sales.

If you’re like most people, you’re probably either using LinkedIn really well or curious whether anyone actually gets real business results through it. As an Expert LinkedIn Profile Writer and Strategist, I want to use this article to help dispel some of the myths around LinkedIn and set you on the right path…

Start with your outcome: Everyone is time sensitive, but never more so when we’re in a serviced based business where time literally is money. Thus, you need to make sure that all of your activities are focused on achieving your outcome: to win new sales. To win new sales, we need to book sales appointments with our ideal clients. When approaching LinkedIn, ask the question “What can I do today to get an ideal prospect on the phone?”

Ramp up the ROI on networking: Connect with everyone you meet at a networking event. You’ve given your 60 second pitch, you’ve listened to theirs. Whether you see yourself doing business with this person or not, you came to the event to meet them and build your network. Once you’re connected, you can stay front of mind even if you can’t attend regularly. For example, one day at a networking event, I began retelling a story to a person I’d only met once four months ago at a networking event. Not only did he remember me from this brief meeting but he jumped in and finished my story for me. How? He saw my post about it on Linked the day before I told him the story. Don’t get forgotten because you can only attend sporadically. Get known

Word-of-mouth supercharged: People buy people. LinkedIn doesn’t replace offline networking and relationship building, but your profile will allow you to stay front of mind and present a clear business pitch that gives your network something to refer prospects to. If matched with a ‘Call to Action’ and sales funnel, you’ll quickly be booking sales appointments.

Connect: Whether you’ve meet a person once or have known them a lifetime, they form a valuable part of your network and LinkedIn gives you the ability to hold them all in one place like a bank account that earns interest. When I launched my business, I won a new contract because I replied to a new invitation to connect and asked how I could help. Our only mutual connect (and thus only way he could have learned about me) was a person who I’d met briefly a year before who’d like a status update that same day. Connect with everyone you meet including people from all areas of your life. You never know when a mutual connection will pay off.

Your profile is 24/7: Your activity can only really pay off if you make sense. If your profile doesn’t match the messaging of your marketing materials or what you’d tell a prospect in person, you’re missing a trick. The reason why my status update made an impact on my new client was because I pitched my business, not my CV. Write for your prospect and consider their buying journey. They aren’t here to hire you for a job, so don’t write for a recruiter. Consider: What do they need to know in order to be interested in what I have to offer? What problem do I solve? How do I work with people? How should a prospect approach me?

Become a trusted advisor: When you stand for something, you stand out. Let people know the problem you solve in the marketplace so when someone mentions it, your name comes up. Use the Experience section to map out your journey, your unique perspective and how you became an expert. Demonstrate your knowledge by freely sharing insights and content that people will talk about, because if you don’t, someone else online will. Remember, the real money is the implementation that the right clients will pay for. The quality of your free content will win you the sales appointments you need with people ready and willing to listen to you.

Build rapport: Use the summary to build rapport with your prospect. Speak in the first person and use phrases like ‘I believe…’, ‘In my experience…’, ‘I’ve seen it first hand’. Your website is the face of your company, but your profile is YOU. Never sell. You wouldn’t do this in a first meeting. Respect the normal ebbs and flows of relationship building and craft your profile to match.

When you have these things in place, you’ll begin to get results from LinkedIn.

If you’re curious how your LinkedIn profile matches up, I invite you to book a 30-minute LinkedIn Profile Review with me. Just connect with me on LinkedIn at uk.linkedin.com/in/naomijohnsonuk. Alternatively, our website www.TheProfile.Company is packed with helpful content to get you started.